Police check cell records in fatal Concord crash

CONCORD (AP) — Cellphone records were being checked as investigators try to determine whether talking on a phone may have contributed to a crash that killed a 41-year-old Concord man and his 9-year-old daughter as they rode their bicycles on a sidewalk along Concord's busy Treat Boulevard, police said Sunday.

Witnesses told police that the Cadillac Escalade that jumped a curb and ran down Solaiman Nuri and his daughter, Hadessa on Saturday morning was speeding, but Concord police Lt. Bill Roche told the Contra Costa Times on Sunday that investigators will also review the cellphone records of the 17-year-old driver who was behind the wheel of the SUV.

Solaiman Nuri was pronounced dead at the scene. His daughter was transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

A second daughter, a 12-year-old, was also hit by the SUV and was hospitalized with minor injuries. Her name has not been officially released.

Toxicology tests were also being run on the teenage driver before investigators could rule out alcohol and drugs as a factor in the crash.

The teen, whose name has not been released by police because of his age, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and booked into Juvenile Hall.

Meanwhile, witnesses are describing a horrific scene after the crash, while friends and family are remembering Nuri and his daughter.

"I was working and heard a bang outside. I ran out and there were a couple of people on the ground," Zuhair Bhatti, a clerk at a liquor store across the street from the crash, told The Associated Press.

"There was one little girl, she was not conscious," Bhatti said. "And there was a man, also on the street, and one girl was screaming."

Bhatti said the driver, a regular customer in his store who came by daily in the same SUV, appeared to "shocked" after the crash.

Solaiman Nuri and is family moved to Concord from Afghanistan more than a decade ago, friends said. He coached his younger daughter's under-13 girls soccer team, Aria Sports Club, a nonprofit group serving the Afghan community across the Bay Area.

"He was a good person, a good family person," said Hafiz Hasani, a friend who knew the family through the sports club. "Everybody loved him," he said.